How out of control will Wisp be on Sunday, what with the $7 lift tickets, etc?

Thinking of heading up there (never been to Wisp), but don't want to make the drive if we're just going to stand in massive lift lines all day...

ive gone the last 5 or 6 years.....its not that bad if you stay way left or stay way on the right side......its just the front main lifts that get busy

How much of the mountain will be open?

by this weekend i bet 60% +

Everybody and his brother will be there Sunday. I'm gonna try to make it. Should we tie pink surveyor's ribbon to our poles to recognize each other or yellow caution tape?

Wisp really cranks out piles of snow to get up and running. You should have good choices this coming weekend.

'Sorry I can't join the DCSki gang for Sunday, but my friends and I will be there on Monday for the 2nd day of the b-day celebration.

Woody

If you look at the Wisp web cams, it looks like at least 60-70% of the trails will be ready in time, the main issue is how fast they can get everything groomed from the 20 inches of snow that fell, plus the man-made stuff. It looks like even the tubing is close to ready to open.

My guess is you will have great conditions and not too much in the way of crowds to deal with. People still won't drive from DC and Baltimore in numbers until we get closer to the holidays.

I still have red ribbon on my ski pole.... and then there is another way to identify me

Anyone want to suggest a time/place for a dcski meetup?

Per Wisp's Web Site:

Sunday
9am - 5pm (chair 1, 2, 3, 6 & 7; belly flop carpet)

Projected Ski / Board Terrain
- Belly Flop
- Possum
- Wisp Trail
- Grouse Way
- Squirrel Cage
- The Face
- Happy Camper
- Ridge Run
- Backbone Pass
- Big Dipper
- Ace's Run
- Over the Edge
- Whip Saw

Not sure if the projected terrain is for only opening day (Thurs) with more opening this weekend.

Suggested meet times: 9:30 AM and 1:30 PM. Anyone feel free to suggest an alternative. Somewhere outside the main lodge. Any Wisp regular suggestions on a landmark?

An early or late lunch is prolly a good idea to avoid the worst of the lunch crowds, hence the earlier AM and later PM suggested meet times.

So, my company's holiday party is Saturday night, and if past experience is any suggestion of how things will go, I'm not sure I'll be in "skiing" shape on Sunday (Jana and I are trying to decide if we can justify bailing early on the party to make the trip).

That said, I just discovered that the $7 lift tickets are available on Monday, too. Is it reasonable to expect that they'll have as much terrain open on Monday as they do on Sunday? Or do they tend to "save" stuff for the weekends?

I've got 6 weeks of leave I need to start burning off, and starting the season with a weekday "sick" day might be a great way to go...


aaron

We have ours on Saturday too.

I think we should declare Sunday straight ski day.

Monday's ideal. Could be fresh snow that morning. Zip crowds. It's always Sun-Mon for the $7 birthday special. Cheap lodging too, IIRC. Bousquet may be there Monday.
I've been to a bunch of the Sunday events and if they have enough terrain open it will be ok. One time the lots were overflowing with cars, yet backsides of mtn were only moderately crowded. Two front chairs by lodge had 10 min waits for part of the day.

Weather looks like it could be messy on Sunday; mixed precipitation, followed by snow in the late afternoon. Any of the DC ski weather prognosticators care to make predictions?

Well, if everyone is bagging Sunday, I'm gonna give it a miss too.

I'll still be there sunday. I know.. one more reason for folks to go on Monday.

I'm planning on being there Sunday, but if the weather looks too bad, I'll skip work and ski Monday. Got enough leave to handle it.

Straight ski day?

I gave away my only pair of straight skis...

What's your BSL, we might be able to fix that. :-)

Not a regular, but lift 1 seems to be the least crowded front lift and might be a good meeting place if it is open. Aside from that, how about the trail map at the summit?

I'm thinking about coming out to play but a lot will depend on the weather. I just might end up at the Springs on Saturday if it looks like I'll have to fight snow frightened motorist on Sunday.

It's looking like I'll end up at Wisp on Monday, barring calamity. If I end up there, I'd love to take some turns with y'all.

Rats are scurrying from that sinking ship. Shape ski Monday?

Planning on being there bright and early sunday. Somewhere around 9 am. Have to wait to get rentals for my nephew so i dought i'll hit the slopes till 10:30 or so. Last few times i was there, Lift lines were between 5-10 mins each unless you hit North Camp. There were "0" lines there, but it was so windy, it wasnt enjoyable.

Monday is the 13th which is even closer to the 15th of Doom* than Sunday. For me it's a question of Ski Sunday or Ski Noday this w/e.

*the cathartic relief of which is very likely do be subsumed into the ominous build up to the [b]New Year's Eve of Guts, Glory and Burnout.[/b]

Hey, if anyone who is going Sunday is willing to meet somewhere and let me ride up with them. (coming from Northern VA), I'd be glad to chip in for gas. Planning on going up Sunday, but my car is not that good in the snow.

Looks like I'll be a no go for Wisp this weekend. Current plan is to be hunkering down in the Valley Sun/Mon. Plus, free (marginal cost) is even cheaper than $7.

It looks increasingly doubtful for me. The Pittsburgh weather models call for rain Saturday through Sunday afternoon before turning to snow. Looks like a 6 hour ride in some serious slop. If the forecast changes I could change my mind but that would be a Saturday night call.

I'm still hoping to ski at Wisp on Sunday. I'm thinking nothing but snow starting at 12:50am Sunday morning. Should be nice first thing. Plus, I'm looking foreward to getting the family on the slopes for some fun.

If the weather doesn't work out, jimmy & JohnL make sure you answer your phones Sunday night/Monday am.

I'm leaving Charles Town/Ranson WV at 6:30 AM on Sunday. Can stuff a couple more in if need be. ggnagy at pobox dot com for my cell number if needed. Coming back ???

Will gather at the base of Chair 1 at 9:30AM and 1 PM. Wearing my Black and Gold of course, and a red ribbon. Will be skiing solo so happy to take runs with other folks.

So how was it? I might be going tomorrow. Is it going to be any good? I'm worried about wet snow freezing over night. I guess they will get a few inches of snow tonight. Did it rain there today?

It rained or iced from overnight to about 9:30 Sunday morning, then switched over to snow for a while. Snowed on and off, then picked up with more intense snow by about 3pm. Monday into Tuesday should be very good. There were a few brown spots here and there, in particular on Boulder under the mountain coaster.

Main Street and Face are nicely ungroomed. Pretty sure they'll groom up anything else that freezes.

Thanks for the report. I ended up not going...

It rained alot longer than 9:30 at least at north camp. rain at base, sleet/snow at top. I was a soggy rat by 11. About that time changed over to all snow. the only slope that looked to be "wearing out" from rain and traffic was Boulder Run.

Only Main street and down under open on east side. the slope off of main street (eye opener?) was only a good grooming from opening though.

Left about 2 due to lingering sogginess, but still had a great time and got more than 7 bucks worth of skiing in.

Not sure about North Camp till after 2 or so, but we got there at 9:30 and it was pouring the rain, by the time we got our stuff together and headed to the lodge, it was a heavy wet snow. Then it snowed and rained on and off all day. Top of the mountain was all snow most of the day and VERY windy. North camp seemed nice in the afternoon. Boulder was TERRIBLE. Nothing but slush down next to the mountain coaster.

Glad i went, the rain kinda scared me driving up. But it ended up being pretty nice. No real lift lines till after 2 or 3.

thought the snow was amazingly good - with all that rain they had - the snow on mainstreet was fantastic all day

Part of the reason I ended up so soggy was because the conditions on NC were nice as well, and I kept skiing back down like an idiot. Eventually, the rain started sneaking into my old pair of goggles, and I realized I could only JUST make out the edges of the trail and had to mostly ski that run by feel.

Sounds like a couple of rough days on the slopes for Wisp's b-day celebrations this year. My Shenandoah Valley friends and I were set to go today (Monday) but the cold air, snowy forecast and high winds drove us (figuratively speaking) away.

So much birthday cake, so few people.

You guys are hard core! Hope you had some dry clothes for the drive home. Yes the skiing (snow condition) is usually very good when it's raining, but the lift riding and general sogginess, not so much. I sat at home Sunday, which in the final analysis isn't as much fun as skiing in the rain.

Today I went to work instead of calling in sick and going skiing. Luckily I have a job that is almost as much fun as skiing icy conditions, so I think I made the right decision to wait for another day to start my ski season!

I went into work as well instead of taking a quick notice PTO day myself. I plan on taking off Friday instead to have my first ski day of the season. Will pay a little more, but the conditions should be much nicer.

I went into work both days

We went today. In a word? Cold and windy. Ok, that was two words.

Otherwise, a great day. Main Street was in pretty good shape, as was Ace's Run and a few other. Getting over to the "North Camp" was a MISERABLE experience, what with the wind, but once we were there, things were good.

We skied pretty much everything that was open, and were a bit impressed with the place (first visit). For $7, we got more than our money's worth, but only lasted for about 5 hours.

I couldn't believe how many kids were there, considering that i'm pretty sure it was a school day.

I think all 55 counties in WV were canceled today. Garrett County probably was too...

I just came back from WISP over the weekend and had a blast!

Saturday - paid $32.00 for their early season rate. The best weather of the 3 days; sunny and the conditions were great. I thought they would have enough snow to open up more trails, but they had North Camp and the front side open, which helped alleviated the "crowd". No lift lines at all and it was a great day to start the ski season!

Sunday - overnight rain turning into a mix of rain/snow throughout much of the day. My group contemplated about going to ski too long because of the weather and we ended up hitting the lodge to set up shop right at noon. Perhaps the lunch crowd might have skewed my perception a bit, but there were 5 times more people on Sunday than on Saturday. Despite the rain/snow mixture, the conditions were surprisingly great.

Monday - snowed throughout the night and the conditions were great, albeit a bit chilly and windy. We went over to North Camp and did laps on Ace's Run (my personal favorite), Whip Saw, and Off the Edge. It actually got colder as the day went on and we finished our ski weekend around 1 pm.

I can't stress how much I appreciate WISP's anniversary weekend each December. I think it's a great and affordable way to introduce beginners (there were a ton of them in my group) to snow sports. Many of them are thrilled and look forward to doing it again next year. This is my third year participating in their event and although they had more trails open two years ago, I thought the conditions were actually better this year.

Just a quick question, are there any resorts in the Mid-Atlantic that has similar deals?

Lodging special at Wisp - Our ski-in ski-out townhouse is on sale from now through Christmas weekend. 25% off weekends, 40% off mid-week stays (2 night minimum). Our townhouse is located 30 steps from the intersection of "Odin's Chute" and "Down Under" trails at Wisp. It has 3 bdrooms, 3 full baths, sleeps 8 comfortably. Two families of four can stay with no trouble. Gas fireplace, hot tub, foosball table, 5 TVs with cable and high-speed wireless internet. Fully equipped kitchen. Shoot me a message if you are interested. Here is the link to our site for photos and more information: http://www.deepcreekvacations.com/deep-creek/ski-in%252fski-out/townhouse/rentals/village-of-the-wisp-%2332-ww/80/alpha